Are robotaxis the future? Or instead, the past?
Are robotaxis the future? Or instead, the past?
Lidar is essential for a safe robotaxi system since computer vision is completely inadequate for detecting certain objects, such as pedestrians at night, or even large semi-trucks crossing the road. But Elon Musk and Tesla are actively refusing to work towards creating a safe autonomous vehicle system.
Unfortunately SB 915, legislation to allow local regulations for AVs, was pulled by the author due to other legislatures gutting it. The press release by Senator Cortese is provided here so that readers can understand what happened.
While Waymo has long claimed to the public and to the CPUC that they use only clean energy, it turns out their vehicles are actually embarrassingly dirty. And the worst part is that Waymo is trying to hide information from the public that would clearly show that they are not using renewable energy for their surprisingly inefficient vehicles.
The Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League put on an autonomous F1 "race" recently. The hype was impressive. The results: the slowest and crashiest F1 event ever!
Waymo tries its best to hide information from the public. But by closely looking at what little data is available from the California PUC one can see that Waymo vehicles are empty for 52% of the miles traveled. Instead of reducing VMT, they more than double it for replaced automobile trips.
From Xitter, a tweet with a dashcam video showing a Tesla on FSD drive directly into a moving train. An excellent reminder that Tesla is not going to be putting out a robotaxi fleet given how weak their technology is.
